


One-Stop Soda Shoppe

by holdyourbreathfornow



Series: Family of Three [13]
Category: Half-Life VR but the AI is Self-Aware - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Changing this up from canon just a little bit, Gen, How They Met, Potions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:34:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27267310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holdyourbreathfornow/pseuds/holdyourbreathfornow
Summary: Darnold is setting up his new lab in Black Mesa when he gets a couple of unexpected visitors.
Relationships: Benrey & Darnold, Darnold & Gordon Freeman, Gordon Freeman & Benrey
Series: Family of Three [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918150
Comments: 6
Kudos: 128





	One-Stop Soda Shoppe

Darnold wonders what would happen if someone looked a gift horse in the mouth. Is the horse itself a gift? Is the horse bringing a gift to the person looking in its mouth? Why wouldn’t the horse just bite the person poking around in its mouth? If Darnold was the gift horse, someone looking in his mouth would probably piss him off too, to be honest.

...He’s lost his train of thought.

Oh, right! It’s extremely unprecedented that someone who’s just earned his doctorate in mixology like Darnold has has managed to snag a job so quickly, and yet here Darnold is, helping some of the security guards move Darnold’s stuff into his new lab. He’s sweating a little by the time they’re done. Maybe he should get rid of some of his flasks? But that sounds like too much effort, so instead Darnold thanks the guards for their time and sends them off with bottles of water. While his potions may be able to do just about anything, Mother Nature still has him beat with some of her stuff.

As soon as Darnold’s alone, he gets to work. No one has ever said he’s a slacker, and he’s not going to let them now. Before he gets to work, he turns on his music and gets to work as Caravan Palace’s work filters through his new lab. This place has some great acoustics.

Unfortunately, it’s good enough to basically drown out everything else, so Darnold doesn’t even hear the footsteps when someone comes into his lab.

“Uh… Excuse me?” Darnold jolts, almost dropping a flask as he whirls and faces the person talking.

Two people stand in the door of the potions lab, a taller man dressed in scrubs and another person peeking out almost shyly from behind the man.

“Oh, uh, hi! Sorry, you startled me!”

“My bad. We were trying to lose our ‘bodyguards’.” The man grins with a twitch of his lips. He gestures awkwardly to the person still hiding behind him. “My friend said they smelled something cooking in here and ended up dragging me along.”

“Your friend’s got a pretty good sense of smell. I’m just whipping up some potions of strength, quick and easy to get me settled in, you know?”

“Potions?” The man asks and Darnold nods, though not as open as he was earlier. He’s had to defend his craft from too many assholes, he doesn’t wanna add these two to the list. “Cool!” Darnold blinks at that, his tough facade falling away. The man beams with childlike glee, coming further into the lab, his friend still clinging to the back of his scrubs. “So are you like an alchemist or something?”

“Uh, mixologist.” Darnold feels his own smile come back in the face of this man’s enthusiasm. “Do... do you and your friend want the potions of strength? I was just gonna put them in the fridge when I was done and it ruins the flavor.”

“Sure! Oh, I should introduce myself. I’m Gordon, this is Benrey.” Benrey waves again from behind Gordon and finally releases his scrubs, coming to sit at the bar Darnold has that makes the whole place feel like a 1950’s soda shoppe. They kick their feet on the stool a little and look around the room.

“Yo, uh… Nice setup. A fellow gamer?” They ask and Darnold turns to see where their gaze has landed on his PC. 

“Yeah, but who has the time for it?” Darnold pours the potions into glasses and slides them towards Gordon and Benrey. “There you are, drink up!”

“Thank you.” Benrey takes their glass and they raise an eyebrow at Gordon from under their helmet. “Chug contest?”

“Don’t cheat and eat the glass again.” Gordon says. The two of them down the potions and Gordon finishes just before Benrey does, setting his glass back on the bar with a triumphant grin. Benrey grouses under their breath as they set their own glass back down. They turn to Gordon and Darnold realizes what they’re about to do before they even move.

“Wait-!” Before he can finish his sentence, Benrey shoves Gordon. Neither of them seem to have realized that what they just drank were potions of strength, and Gordon goes flying off his bar stool, sliding across the ground and causing the linoleum to squeak like nails on a chalkboard. Benrey yelps with laughter and Gordon rolls over onto his back where he’s skidded to a stop.

“Oh my god.” He mutters and Darnold walks over to him, peering down at him. “I’m good.”

“The potions also give temporary invulnerability, otherwise you’d probably have some, uh, nasty floor burn.”

“Fuckin… Air hockey puck person.” Benrey calls from their own bar stool and Gordon heaves himself back to his feet. He turns to Darnold. 

“Thanks for the potions. I have to kick Benrey’s ass now.”

“Uh, okay?” At Gordon’s words, Benrey had slid off their bar stool and begun creeping towards the door. “Thanks for visiting, y’all can come back anytime you want.”

“Awesome! It was nice meeting you!” With that, Gordon whirls to take off after Benrey, who also takes off, screeching their way down the hall.

Darnold watches them go before he starts laughing to himself, shaking his head disbelievingly before he goes to right the fallen bar stool and get back to work.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! You can come say hi over on my Tumblr: holdyourbreathfornow


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